Conan Takes His Late Night Antics to Cable

Posted on Apr 12, 2010

Late night chatterbox Conan O’Brien, whose career woes briefly made him the perfect entertainer for a nation of unemployed people, is headed back to work. TBS, which already has a late night show helmed by George Lopez, managed to secure the rights to Conan’s yuk-yuks ahead of Fox.

At least two analysts think it’s a great idea. TBS doesn’t have the audience of the broadcast networks, but then neither did O’Brien (ouch). Plus, O’Brien’s offbeat humor is better suited to the looser restrictions of cable.

O’Brien’s show will be on at 11 p.m., Monday through Thursday. It kicks off in November. —PZS

The network that prides itself on being “Very Funny” just got a whole lot funnier today: Exiled late-night talk-show host Conan O’Brien has revealed he will be joining the TBS lineup with a brand-new program starting in November. The announcement follows months of speculation that O’Brien would relocate to Fox — the one major network without a late-night presence — following his exit from NBC and his short-lived stint with The Tonight Show. Instead, O’Brien surprised his legions of fans with news he’ll be making the jump to basic cable.

“The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November! The bad news: I’ll be playing Rudy on the all new Cosby Show,” O’Brien tweeted today, hours before his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour launches in Eugene, Oregon (check back tomorrow for our full report). “In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly,” O’Brien, who will emcee this year’s Bonnaroo Festival, said in a press release.